Let’s do some Big Game Hunting, starting with the top five matchups on the board in Week 12. (All games on Saturday unless otherwise noted. All rankings reflect BCS rankings. All times Eastern.)

1. No. 14 Stanford at No. 1 Oregon (8 p.m., ABC). We all know how great the Ducks (10-0, 7-0 Pac-12) are offensively, but no program has felt the biting reality of that greatness more than Stanford (8-2, 6-1), which surrendered more than 50 points in losses to Chip Kelly’s team in 2010 and 2011. Having it all set up with Andrew Luck under center, with a dominant offensive line and a terrific running game, and even with a big, physical defense—it just wasn’t good enough. The Quack Attack made the Cardinal look foolish.

So why might that change in 2012? Because Oregon is injury-riddled on defense, for one thing, but also because the Cardinal defense is better than it was in either of the past two seasons. Even with Marcus Mariota exploding into the Heisman picture with 10 touchdown passes in his past two games, this seems to be a legitimate opportunity for Stanford’s D to win at the line of scrimmage and throw a wrench into the Ducks’ national title plans.

“It’ll be a huge challenge offensively getting matched up against what will be the best defense we’ve faced so far,” Kelly said.

If another 50 gets dropped on the Cardinal’s heads, we’ll almost be kinda-sorta shocked.

2. No. 21 USC at No. 17 UCLA (3 p.m., FOX). The series between the Trojans (7-3, 5-3 Pac-12) and Bruins (8-2, 5-2) is so one-sided—with USC having won five straight and 12 of 13—that it can’t even be called a rivalry. At least not with a straight face.

And yet here the Trojans are with all the pressure on them to beat their crosstown “rival,” win the South, get a rematch with Oregon, redeem themselves for three disappointing losses, and so on. And here Lane Kiffin is with all the pressure on him. He’s the coach—certainly not UCLA’s first-year success story, Jim Mora—who is being asked, relevantly or not, about his job security.

“I know we have a great plan here to do the best we can in the situation that we’ve been put in a couple years ago,” Kiffin said of NCAA sanctions that cost his program gobs of scholarships and, before this season, postseason eligibility. “And we have a very young team too. So I’m not at all (thinking) in that direction.”

3. No. 6 Ohio State at Wisconsin (3:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN2). No matter how many times one shuffles this deck, the Buckeyes (10-0, 6-0 Big Ten) come out with a handful of advantages over the Badgers (7-3, 4-2).

The most pronounced of those advantages is at quarterback. In the one hand, the seeming trump card: Braxton Miller, the most dynamic player in the Big Ten and by far its most productive quarterback. In the other: Curt Phillips, a fifth-year senior who’s had three ACL reconstructions and will be making just his second career start.

You can always count on Urban Meyer to slow-play his hand. “The good thing about the players and the guys who are important to me,” the coach said, “is they know who we are right now—we have a lot of holes.”

4. No. 22 Rutgers at Cincinnati (noon, Big East Network). One of these teams—or Louisville—is going to win the Big East, and this is the second of that trio’s round-robin to figure out which one it’ll be.

The Scarlet Knights (8-1, 4-0) lost five straight to the Bearcats (7-2, 3-1) before a victory last season in which Jawan Jamison rushed for 200 yards. Jamison is an extreme talent, but Cincy, led by tailback George Winn, has the league’s top running game. This matchup will be decided up front, or so it would seem.

It might hinge instead on which quarterback plays the cleaner game. Rutgers’ Gary Nova has been rock-solid on the road this season, but UC senior Brendon Kay was terrific last week in his first start after replacing erratic passer Munchie Legaux. Kay threw for 244 yards and two scores and ran for 71 yards—with no turnovers—in a blowout win at Temple.

5. No. 2 Kansas State at Baylor (8 p.m., ESPN). “We’ve been due for a while,” Art Briles said this week, and who can blame him? The Bears (4-5, 1-5 Big 12) averaged 37.8 points in their five conference losses. Yeah, their defense is abominable—in fact, it ranks dead last in all of college football—but the nation’s No. 2-ranked offense can pump up the scoreboard like nobody’s business.

Which probably scares K-State (10-0, 7-0), um, not at all. You know, because of the whole Collin Klein thing. And the whole Bill Snyder thing. And the whole much-better-team thing.

Did we mention Baylor’s defense isn’t all that great?

Four of a Kind: Bowl cuts

1. Iowa at No. 23 Michigan (noon, ESPN) doesn’t scream upset, but the Hawkeyes (4-6, 2-6 Big Ten) are at risk of missing out on the postseason for the first time in five years and just the second time in the past 11 years. And that means some people are going to be screaming at Kirk Ferentz if Michigan (7-3, 5-1) does what it ought to do. Even if Iowa springs this unlikely upset, it’ll have to beat Nebraska in Iowa City just to keep playing.

2. See if this makes sense: You end last season with a win over Georgia and begin this season with a win over Boise State … and now you’re 5-5 overall and 2-4 in a down-in-the-mouth Big Ten? We give you Michigan State, which hosts Northwestern (noon, ESPN2) and needs a win over the Wildcats (7-3, 3-3) or next week at Minnesota just to keep its five-year bowl streak alive.

3. There’s only one way Arkansas (4-6, 2-4 SEC) finishes its season in anything other than abject infamy: by winning at Mississippi State (7-3, 3-3) on Saturday (12:21 p.m., SEC Network) and then—yes, then—taking down LSU in the regular-season finale. It’s another way of saying the Razorbacks, once a kitschy pick for the 2012 national title, are going bowl-less for the first time in four years.

4. Duke at Georgia Tech (3:30 p.m., ESPNU) may not move the needle much, but there are a bunch of reasons why it should. For one thing, the Blue Devils (6-4, 3-3 ACC) are not only bowl-eligible but in position to win in Atlanta and then next week vs. Miami in Durham to claim the Coastal Division crown. The Yellow Jackets (5-5, 4-3) can win the Coastal, too—or they can lose Saturday before being squashed by Georgia and miss a bowl for the first time since 1996. A 15-year postseason streak—tied for fourth-longest among FBS programs—is on the line.

Three Things I Don’t Want to Know Yet But Am Afraid I Already Do

1. Here’s what Tennessee (4-6, 0-6 SEC) has been reduced to: hoping and praying it somehow can beat terrifying state bully Vanderbilt (6-4, 4-3) for the seventh year in a row and follow up that massive feat with a cold-blooded takedown of the great Kentucky Wildcats. Bowl game, baby!

Not gonna happen. However they fail to get it done, the Vols will fail to get it done; they’re just that good at being bad. Derek Dooley couldn’t possibly survive a loss in Nashville (7 p.m., ESPN2), could he?

2. While the Big 12 media picked West Virginia to kick all kinds of butt in its first season in the league, Sporting News was cautious—OK, fine, brilliant—pegging the Mountaineers for 8-4 overall and 5-4 in league games. We didn’t go far enough. WVU will drop to 5-5, 2-5 when No. 13 Oklahoma (7-2, 5-1) visits Morgantown (7 p.m., FOX).

3. You—yeah, you—are going to blow off two important games on Saturday: UCF at Tulsa (noon, FSN affiliates) and Utah State at Louisiana Tech (4 p.m., ESPN3). Not that we can blame you on the second count; what a travesty it is that a game for first place in the WAC between the Aggies (8-2, 4-0) and the massively entertaining Bulldogs (9-1, 4-0) has such an awful TV assignment.

The Knights and the Golden Hurricane both are 8-2 overall and 6-0 in Conference USA—repping opposing divisions—and we only wish this sort of thing registered with the masses. Alas, it does not. Frankly, we don’t care as much as we’re pretending to, either.

Two Underdogs You Definitely Should Bet Your House On

1. Iowa +17.5 at Michigan. Look, have a modicum of respect for the Hawkeyes—they don’t do blowout losses. Four of their six losses have been by three points or less. They’ll lay it all on the line in this one and keep it close.

One More Thing

Call it the SEC-SoCon Challenge. And what a perfect time for it! Who doesn’t love matchups like Georgia-Georgia Southern and South Carolina-Wofford during the dog days of, um, November?

No one loves them, that’s who. In all, four SEC teams are playing FCS squads from the Southern Conference on Saturday. That doesn’t include Florida, which has Jacksonville State on tap, or Texas A&M, which gets Sam Houston State.

Seriously, is anyone supposed to care about these games?

Just when it needs to recapture the stage most, with its national-title chances slipping away, Alabama gets a visit from Western Carolina.

This is not good timing for the SEC, whose proud backers have their dander up as Kansas State, Oregon and Notre Dame hog all the attention.

We’re not even giving you the SEC game times and TV info, the matchups are so unwatchable.

Thank goodness for Auburn and Kentucky. They’ve caught a lot of grief this season, but credit the Tigers and Wildcats now for—unlike most of their conference brethren—taking on huge challenges this weekend.

Against Alabama A&M and Samford, respectively, that is. Hey, you know darn well those are going to be close games.